The Rev. Janet Edwards, a member of Pittsburgh Presbytery who is standing for moderator of the upcoming 220th General Assembly, has announced that the Rev. Jeffrey Krehbiel (M.Div. 1986), pastor of Church of the Pilgrims in Washington, DC, is her running mate for vice-moderator.

“What I treasure greatly in Jeff is the way he integrates both word and deed in his proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Edwards said in announcing her running mate, a member of National Capital Presbytery. “He is as comfortable talking theology in coffee hour after worship on Sunday as he is in a group meeting with the mayor on affordable housing.”

Edwards is the fourth of the five announced candidates for moderator to name her vice-moderator running mate. The Rev. Sue Krummel of Great Rivers Presbytery has named the Rev. Sanghyuan James Lee of Trinity Presbytery; the Rev. Neal Presa of Elizabeth Presbytery has tapped the Rev. Tara Spuhler McCabe, also of National Capital Presbytery; and the Rev. Robert Austell Jr. of Charlotte Presbytery has named the Rev. Hope Italiano Lee of Peace River Presbytery.

Only the Rev. Randy Branson of Palo Duro Presbytery has not named a running mate.

Krehbiel, a Michigan native, traces the roots of his call to urban ministry to a youth mission trip from his church in Ann Arbor to inner-city Chicago. “The [Chicago] church was a hub of their urban community, engaging their neighbors seven days a week, incarnating the gospel in their common life, finding their lives by giving themselves away,” he says. “I had never experienced church like this before, and I have worked to rediscover that same vital dynamic ever since.”

Krehbiel has been involved in urban ministry for more than 25 years. Prior to going to Church of the Pilgrims in 2000, he served congregations on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City and in Wilmington, Del. Located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Church of the Pilgrims was the “national church” of the former Presbyterian Church in the U.S.